Weekend Update (Slightly Late)

I saw the Pro Bowl Sunday. Let me tell you how fun it was. ..... Well, there ya' go. It was an experience that doesn't come around very often, so I felt obligated to try it once. The tickets were relatively inexpensive, my seats were good, and I wanted to see what it was about.

Evan's Blog sums it up nicely. Since we went together, it'll save me a lot of typing. Karen and I left about 10 minutes before Evan. And another thought on Shane's backpack. Shane is 6 and while he's been known to terrorize people, he's not a terrorist threat. Oddly, inside the gate if you bought a program (I didn't) it came with a free HUGE tote-bag. The point being, they opened Shane's backpack, every single pocket, found nothing in it of any issue. Then they told his parents he couldn't bring it in. Absolutely stupid.

The "Fan Experience" was boring as all Hell. There were a few neat things, though. They had the Vince Lombardi trophy. Never saw it in person before. Unlike the Stanley Cup, they don't let you close to it so you can't touch it or take your picture with it. And it's ugly. They had a nice exhibit on the history of the ball itself, the NFL logo, and they had one of every SuperBowl ring. That was some impressive hardware. Other than that, my experience matches Evan's so read his blog post. Now that I know what happened beforehand, I know why he was Mister Grouchy Pants. After I got home I read half of my new book Iorich the new Steven Brust masterpiece in the Vlad Taltos trilogy until I couldn't keep my eyes open.

I won't discuss the Monday night Panthers loss as it was sad. At least we played hockey and lost as opposed to our usual losing. We still have some tickets for our special group outing to give Jay Bouwmeester (J-Blow) a very special welcome home.

After the game, I came home and finished reading Iorich. I did that at the expense of sleep but it was well worth it. This, the twelfth Vlad book, is one of my favourites. It's a light read, to be sure, but it's got lots of personality and Vlad is very 'himself' and Brust is in his groove. We also get to spend a little time with Vlad's son and get to know him. I'm getting a huge sense he's going to be a major character in the next book or two. I'll avoid spoilers except to say Vlad survives the novel so you know the assassins on his tail will still be at it come the next book. I rather enjoyed the chapter openings which are part of military investigation. Also, Brust, in a witty mood to be sure has included "deleted scenes" in the back of the book. Nice touch. Adds nothing, but still.

I still have House and Heroes on my Ti-Faux. And I'll add Lost to what's sitting there since I'm going to spend many hours tonight as the plumber works in my house. More on that later.

Many years after Concorde's fateful crash that took the plane out of the sky, manslaughter trial against Continental Airlines has opened in France. The claim being a Continental plane that was not properly repaired dropped a scrap of metal on the runway which punctured Concorde's tire and that steel belted tire blew apart, puncturing the fuel tank causing the fire. That ultimately led to Concorde no longer flying. Continental claims they can prove the plane was in flames before it hit the piece of metal. (There is no defense that the piece of metal was there. Only whether it was the precipitating cause.) BBC News reports with all sorts of related links.

I wasn't posting this until I was done but Sue is badgering me.

MRI Results and stuff

This is post 650 for this blog and the current counter has surpassed 230,000 which is pretty amazing to me. I also wish to point out I am spending too much time on Facebook lately. I'll correct that in short order. Happy Birthday to Jace -- I'm glad you're having one, and I hope there are many more to follow. I have a brutal headache and have taken Fioricet. Good luck to David who's off on his business trip.

I am saddened at the crash of the monorails at Disney (Purple was hit by Pink). One intrepid tourist shot a video just after the crash -- a short way in you can hear security say they just called the EMTs. This video is at the ClickOrlando's website here (you may have to watch a commercial first). It's pretty disturbing that Disney security is more concerned about the guy filming it, than getting passengers off the train or trying to see if anyone's hurt (or as it turns out dead). You can see some tourists trying to rescue the driver. This was at 2am and the very last monorail of the day, so doubly sad, bad luck. Over on YouTube an ex monorail driver explains how this might have happened. The monorail was reopened earlier today.

So I had my MRI results today. Or, to be accurate, the doctor interpreted them today. There is no additional damage to my C1 through C7 vertebrae when comparing the new and old MRI except for what can be accounted for based on my age (fuck you!) The issue I had mentioned before "meningocele" is minor and isn't the cause of my pain. So that leaves muscle and tissue damage. Since the last cortisone shot into my neck didn't do much for the pain, we're trying something else. I am having Celebrex for two weeks (2x day) and a Lidocain patch (1x day for 12hrs). We're going to see how that works. I saw Dr Berkower instead of Dr Cohen -- same office. I liked him okay and he's a hockey fan. He also checked my knee pain out and said it probably wasn't serious and would likely go away over several months: that means returning to the pain level from before the accident.

And for those of you who might be ABBA fans and not on my FaceBook page, there's this word of a pseudo-reunion from BBC. It's in Hyde Park so have fun. I'd go but it's on Dad's Birthday which would be a bad thing.

My Own Plane Scare

The recent news about the airplane that went down in the Hudson brought my own mishap to mind. I've told a few people but mostly I kept my mouth shut because I was never able to find my proof -- I thought it vanished. Today, it appeared. I've scanned it and added it to my Flickr page.

Me and Dad flew Eastern 158 from MIA to DCA (Washington National airport). It was a birthday present for me from my Dad in 1988. We left, the flight was uneventful. We got near Washington, DC and the pilot said "we have a landing gear problem" and advised us to prepare for a hard landing. We circled, dumped fuel, and then came into land. They stopped all other airport traffic, and as we got closer, you could see the lines of fire and foam trucks on the sides of the runway.

We hit, and by hit, I mean HIT. It was a very hard landing, one of the tires had apparently blown on take off as the pilot explained to us. What wasn't expected is that on landing the other two -- both on the left side of the aircraft -- would also blow causing the landing gear strut to dig into the runway. So here we are flying down the runway, sparks flying, and foam shooting all over the place. We stop right at the end of the runway -- blocking both runways. The pilot did his best to keep the plan straight even though it keep trying to veer as we went down the runway and I'm sure his efforts kept it from being worse.

The tried to open the rear door (727s had them then) to get us out, only it wouldn't open. Then they couldn't open the front door because it was leaning on the tarmac. Some 90 minutes later, a hydraulic jack was used to prop the plane up. After that, we were all safely removed from the plane on to waiting buses. The cabin crew was terrific the whole time. There were no injuries on board: not one.

We exit the plane and notice Eastern had draped a big tarpaulin over the plane so you couldn't see their name. Seriously. I wish I had saved the articles my relatives had. Anyway, EAL took us into the terminal and got us our luggage and sent us on our way. They never apologized or anything. It was like nothing had happened. We got to the hotel some four hours late, and there were numerous messages from my relatives who all knew I was on that flight and had seen our plane on the national news. As it turns out, we caused havoc in all major airports from Chicago east.

In a side note, our return flight to MIA several days later made an unscheduled stop in Greensboro when it was determined we didn't have enough fuel to make it back.

And, now you know why I just don't worry about plane crashes anymore. I've experienced my air disaster.

Today, special shout outs to Paul: Nice to see your sorry ass again. I'm glad you're doing well. Evan: No, you will never, ever know what I mean by that Beatles clip -- but you read the answer and didn't even know it. And the word of today is "Burberry." And Murph liked his gift. Murph is a class act all the way. Skating thread updated: Sunday 10am, Pines. Woo-Hoo.

Crashing Airplanes and Obama

First, a little bit on the USAir crash into the Hudson. I had mentioned how fascinating the video of the actual crash was and many of my friends said "Video? There's VIDEO?" There is, indeed a video of the plane gliding in for a perfect landing in the river as well as the ferrys coming to rescue everyone. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7834853.stm

Second, I want to congratulate Barack Obama on becoming the newest president of the United States. And to Little Shrub I say, "Ding, dong, the wicked witch is dead. I hope the door hits you in the ass on the way out. And yes, there's plenty of hard feelings."

I took peeks at the proceedings but I was at work today and I was working so I didn't see a whole lot. The CNN website simply overloaded and was unable to feed video and kept saying "Try back later" or "Wait and we'll connect you" which never happened. MSNBC mostly worked though so that got me video on and off. I did watch Aretha sing and Obama swear in. Other than that just snippets here and there. I felt a sense of hope. Yay, hope.

A speedy recovery to Ted Kennedy who had a seizure during the innaguration. While he's not a perfect person, he's done a great deal to this country. He'll be remembered as a great American and he should.

Welcome to the Blogsphere Evan. Good luck. He joins a number of my other friends (many of whom can be found in the blog-roll to your right). I add/remove people based on how often they do (or don't) update. If you have a blog, please link back to mine. I'll give you, at the very least, a mention in my next post if you let me know you've done so. (Hey Evan, that means you!)

Various Stuff

1. No news on fraud.
2. iDrive sucks. It's the one thing about my new car that sucks ass. I really hate it more with each passing day. I like my car but not the iDrive disaster.
3. Chiropractor visit today was helpful.
4. StateFarm appears to be paying doctor's bills through July so need for lawyer is shrinking. Though someone ought to sue Progressive just 'cause they're lying assholes.
5. The "all business class" airline concept is dead. SilverJet, MaxJet, and Eos have all folded. The last one L'Avion was bought today by British Airways.
6. Continental Airlines and two employees are facing criminal charges in the fatal crash of Concorde in the year 2000. The French claim that a chunk of a Continental DC-10 hit the tyre, which burst and sent shrapnel into the Olympic engines causing the fire that brought the plane down. I really like Continental, but I'm not seeing how they'll be found innocent here. Another article is here in the NY Times (thanks Mr. Rice).
7. Fox News has done something that many other REPUTABLE organizations have fired people for. It has digitally altered photos of people who do not support their views and passed them off as otherwise. The full story on Media Matters. It was done on the decidedly un-fair and un-balanced "Fox and Friends" show. Fox News has sunk to a new low. On Wednesday, the network displayed photos that its editors had doctored of two New York Times employees -- reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Radcliffe. You can see the before-and-after evidence showing that Fox purposefully yellowed Steinberg's teeth, widened his nose and chin, and photo-shopped his ears stick out further.
8. I am going to switch to FF3 later today because the Noia Theme is finally available. I will, sadly, have to switch from Googlebar to Google Toolbar. And, worse, I will lose PrintImage but I am pleased that I can finally make the switch. Beta versions of Googlebar and Favicon Picker were found making me even happier.
9. I'm really hungry. I am no longer hungry, though what I ate was shite.
10. Good luck to Mom who had an especially bad day.
11. I went to Publix and Walgreens today because they'll be closed today.
12. I will take Grandma to breakfast tomorrow.

(EDIT: Edited 8 and added 10+)